


Vindication

by Honorable_mention



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Comedian Richie Tozier, Domestic Fluff, Famous Richie Tozier, M/M, Married Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Teasing, Zoom - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:40:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24802471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honorable_mention/pseuds/Honorable_mention
Summary: Eddie was not enjoying quarantine. It wasn’t the isolation– he had Richie to keep him company. It wasn’t the confines of his apartment– his and Richie’s apartment in LA would be large enough to fit all the Losers with space to spare. It wasn’t the fear of disease. Okay, that was a bit of a lie, Eddie still had his baggage.But no, what really bothered Eddie, what kept him up at night, was the fact that he couldn’t yell at his dumbass colleagues in person.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 16
Kudos: 286





	Vindication

Eddie was not enjoying quarantine. It wasn’t the isolation– he had Richie to keep him company. It wasn’t the confines of his apartment– his and Richie’s apartment in LA would be large enough to fit all the Losers with space to spare. It wasn’t the fear of disease. Okay, that was a bit of a lie, Eddie still had his baggage.

But no, what really bothered Eddie, what kept him up at night, was the fact that he couldn’t yell at his dumbass colleagues in person.

“Bruno, please explain to me your exact thought process when you turned this in for review,” Eddie said, holding the offending document in his hand. It was a smaller Zoom meeting, just Eddie and four of his coworkers. 

“I don’t know. Is there, like, a problem with it?” Bruno said, flashing the shallowest attempt at a sympathetic grin Eddie had ever seen. Eddie took a deep breath, something his therapist had taught him, and suppressed the urge to break quarantine to go to Bruno’s house and strangle him.

“It’s an optimization problem. We can agree on that, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And that’s a basic Calc I topic, correct?”

“Yeah.”

“So please explain to me, Bruno, why you chose to simply put a graph of your two functions next to a normal curve in a Google doc.”

“I thought it was relevant,” Bruno said. Eddie could see the light from his phone reflecting off his nose. He wondered what Bruno was doing. Texting, maybe, or playing some stupid mobile game. Deep breaths, Eddie, in and out.

“The rest of you, you’re okay. Not great, mind you, but not completely incompetent.” Eddie looked at the other people in the chat. He was trying to make this work, but the fact that his conversations were recorded and thus he could not let out the cathartic, profanity-laced tirade he wanted to was, as Richie liked to say, hurting the vibe of his life.

Without warning but not without precedent, a voice called from the kitchen. 

“Hey, Eddie, do we have any more flour?” Richie’s words followed by a concerning crash.

“Why do you need flour? Did Ben give you another recipe?” Silence followed. “I’m going to take that as a yes. Please don’t do anything stupid.”

A perfect imitation of Ben’s voice came from the kitchen and said, “You really shouldn’t bake without Eddie supervising you. Actually, scratch that, it’s a miracle the two of you have been able to keep your apartment in one piece. You share one single shred of common sense. Let me and Bev drop food off at your apartment.”

“Oh come on, Ben wouldn’t say that.”

“You sure?”

“No. Don’t you have work? It’s almost three. I thought you had to talk to those Netflix people.”

“Shit! You’re right!” There was more clanging from the kitchen, and then shuffling in the room behind Eddie.

Someone cleared their throat on the call. “So that was interesting,” Ginny said. She was young, new, technically competent at her job.

“Yeah, I thought Edward was all about professionalism,” Bruno said, smirking. “Seems a little bit, and I do say this to provoke scandal, to be taking away from the serious business environment.”

“Did I hear someone call you Edward, Eddie? That’s absolutely hilarious!” Richie called from the other room.

“I’ve been working from home for three weeks. Why are you choosing now to start being an ass about it?”

“I’m bored,” Richie drawled.

“Then do your job!” Eddie turned back to the screen. “But I digress. We’ll meet tomorrow at two thirty. Please make sure to look over your work before you send it to me. And Bruno, I can send you some good YouTube videos if you need a math refresher.” Eddie watched as his coworkers logged off one by one. He was about to close his computer when he heard Ginny say something.

“You know, it’s kind of funny, but your roommate’s voice sounds exactly like this comedian my boyfriend watches. It doesn’t really matter, I just thought you might find it interesting. I’ll see if I can find a video, they really do sound super similar.”

“You don’t have to, Ginny. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Eddie logged off his computer.

* * *

That night Richie posted a message on Twitter. Nothing fancy, just as you would expect from a comedian whose jokes mainly focused on his or his husband’s dick.

_ Today one of my husband’s coworkers recognized my voice which is hilarious because I was pretty sure everyone he works with was already asleep from his sexy discussion of spreadsheets _

It was a whim, as most Richie things were, tweeted as they watched Breaking Bad for the sixth time. Eddie half-heartedly tried to explain the joys of top tier spreadsheeting, but he did it with a laugh. 

The next day Eddie put the sign outside his makeshift office that told Richie to fuck off: Eddie was busy with his real, professional job. He worked for a bit, answering emails and editing reports. Then, at two thirty, he logged on to Zoom and greeted his team.

“It’s good to see that all of you are alive. I wouldn’t have thought it from the work some of you turned in. Ginny, Steve, you guys are fine. To be honest, Elena, I was expecting more from you. But Bruno. Bruno! You didn’t even turn anything in!”

Bruno shrugged. “I didn’t have anything to do.”

“I sent you an itemized list of things to do yesterday.”

“I didn’t see it.”

“Bruno,” Eddie said, “you’re lucky that I want everyone to be able to access health insurance during a pandemic. Otherwise, I wouldn’t put up with this.”

“Sure, whatever you need to tell yourself.” Deep breaths Eddie, the consequences of assaulting Bruno outweigh the benefits. Deep breaths.

There was a knock on the door. 

“Read the sign, dumbass,” Eddie yelled.

“I’m just letting you know I tried the crepe recipe Ben sent me. If you smell something burning, please don’t be concerned.”

“Is there still an active fire hazard in the house?”

“No.”

“Then go away.”

“Love you too, Eds!” Richie called, making a truly heinous fake kiss sound as he left. 

The rest of the call was fairly uneventful, as Eddie’s job tended to be. It was nice. It was routine. It was normal. And, at the end, he got to kick back and spend time with Richie.

“Have I ever told you how hot I think your work persona is?” Richie asked.

“Oh fuck off dude, you’re just saying that to get me riled up.”

“I’m not! It’d be a benefit if it did, but I’m not. I genuinely think it’s amazing how you, my husband who once ate two pounds of crab legs after finding out he wasn’t allergic, turns into a Very Serious Business Person. Plus, you know I have a thing for guys in suits.”

“What, you want me to start wearing a suit in the bedroom?” 

“You joke,” Richie said, “but I would not turn down the opportunity.”

That night, Richie posted a picture of Eddie’s tie drawer to Twitter.

_ Really appreciating that my husband’s job lets me indulge in my business attire kink _

* * *

The next day Eddie wore his fun tie. It was red with little drawings of spaghetti on it. The tie had been an anniversary gift from Richie, and Eddie wore it when he wanted to cut loose a bit. No one said anything on their call that day but, that evening, he was cc'd on an email he was probably not supposed to be included in.

The email was from Bruno to Ginny, Elena, and Steve. The subject line was simple: Is boss a gay???

Bruno had included several pieces of evidence, notably the lack of a wife but not of a “roommate” and the “gayness” that Bruno claimed emitted straight from Eddie. At the bottom, Bruno had instructed everyone to discuss. 

“Guys, I have a wild theory. Edward is Trashmouth Tozier’s husband,” Ginny replied.

“Who? Also, explain,” Elena wrote.

“Trashmouth’s this shitty comedian Adam watches. But Edward’s roommate sounds exactly. Like. Him. It’s freaky, guys. And Trashmluth posted a picture of his husband’s ties, and Edward was wearing one of the exact same ties today.”

“Elly,” Steve said, “please know I care about you deeply as a friend, and thus feel comfortable telling you you’re being a moron.”

At that point Eddie felt like he should weigh in. “It’s true. Boss is a gay.” He sent the email and realized, with a start, that that was the first time he had ever come out to any of his coworkers. 

* * *

Things died down from there. Richie realized he was on a deadline for his new special and actually began writing in earnest. Eddie was finally able to get Bruno to turn in reports that were technically passable. 

Everything was normal until one day, without warning, Richie came into Eddie’s office and started reading him a section of his new special.

“And then I talk about that time you got stabbed in the face. Funny or no, be honest.”

“I’m working,” Eddie said, exasperated.

“I’ll leave soon, but funny or no?”

“Not funny, would be better if you actually wrote the jokes.”

“But that’s hard!” Richie complained, slumping on the chair behind Eddie.

“It’s your job, loser. Now leave, I’m busy.”

“Ugh, fine. Also, I’m ordering Thai tonight, is that cool?”

“Of course.” Eddie looked back down at the report and frowned. “Bruno, why did you send this to me in grey? Did you have to make a conscious effort to switch the document’s text color out of black?” Bruno shrugged and Eddie sighed. And that’s when he noticed Ginny, bouncing up and down in her chair. Finally she yelled, her words laced with excitement and her cheeks pink.

“Vindication, bitches!”

**Author's Note:**

> So I’ve finally written something again!
> 
> This is my first IT story, but I just love this fandom, and Reddie’s low key my favorite ship. 
> 
> I hope y’all like this story! I’ll probably be posting a ton of short Reddie stories over the next couple weeks as I attempt to get back in the habit of actually writing.


End file.
